Join BEC: your Investment in Brighton Energy Coop Makes it all Happen

None of this would be possible without you. BEC isn’t backed by venture capitalists or private equity, pension funds or fossil fuel companies.

The only money we get is from you.

Brighton Energy Co-op has already completed 28 new solar arrays, and it’s all down to your decision to invest in our projects. By investing in Brighton Energy Coop you’ll become a member; members receive 5% interest on their investment and all monies go to creating new solar in our area.

About Solar investment

Any solar investment has a positive impact, but these choice of solar investment ranges from solar farm investment through to community energy organisations like Brighton Energy Coop. Most work in a similar way, although the community energy businesses has a unique organisational structure that emphasises community benefits.

Typically, solar investment is based on government subsidies: the Feed in tariff for small systems, and the Renewable obligation certificate for solar farm investments.

These subsidies mean that as long as the solar system is operating, solar investments are a reliable way of generating income for an organisation.

Solar investment funds

This predictability makes solar investment funds popular with the City of London.

City investors – like pension funds – look for safe, reliable places to put their money. In 2012, for example, Lancashire County Council Pension Fund invested £8 million in community energy group in Westmill in Oxfordshire. Other pension funds invest in more commercially-minded solar setups.

Solar investments funds cluster projects into so-called ‘special purpose’ vehicles ‘ i.e. one company that owns a group of seperate solar energy systems.

NextEnergy, for example, is an AIM-listed solar farm investment fund that owns a portfolio of solar farms strung across the country. Becuase revenue into the fund is the collective total of a variety of different solar farms (more than 30) then if one solar farm has operational problems, then the amount of cash the organisation brings in is not hugely affected.

Solar investment and community energy

Community Energy groups often adopt a similar portfolio approach. Brighton Energy Coop, for example, has more than 25 solar systems, so a problem at one system does not largely effect the performance of the whole organisation.

So as the organisation grows the ‘revenue risk’ gets less. We see this as a responsible approach to manage the money that our members invest with us.

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Solar for Schools

Brighton Energy Coop is a Brighton and Hove City Council approved contractor to roll out FREE SolarPV on local schools

Brighton Energy Coop is the trading name of Brighton Energy Ltd, a Community Benefit Society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, registered with the Financial Conduct Authority No. 31107R and at Flat 7, 47 Montpelier Rd, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3BA. See our
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